There are many ways to start meditating, either in person by following a meditation course, or from your own place, using meditation tutorials or apps.
In this article, we will have a look at Meditation Apps that you can install and use on your smartphone. There are many meditation apps available, and the best one for you will depend on your personal preferences, goals, and time available for meditation. Here are the 10 best meditation apps for beginners that you can start using right now:
- Headspace
- Calm
- Insight Timer
- Meditopia
- Smiling Mind
- Buddhify
- 10% Happier
- Simple Habit
- Meditation Studio
- Relax Melodies
Headspace
This app offers a wide variety of guided meditations for beginners, as well as more advanced users. It’s also great for those who are new to meditation as it offers a comprehensive introduction to the practice.
With Over 70 Million Members in 190 countries in the world, it is one of the best known meditation apps.
The Headspace app is part of Headspace Health, who partners with over 2,500 companies and health plans to provide access to meditation, mindfulness, coaching, therapy, and psychiatry to their members and employees.
After a 14 days free trial period you have to switch to an annual subscription, which costs around 60$/year.
Calm
Calm is the #1 app for Sleep, Meditation and Relaxation, with over 100 million downloads and over 1.5M+ 5-star reviews, according to their site.
This app offers a wide range of guided meditations, as well as sleep stories, music and nature sounds, and other features to help you relax and de-stress.
Insight Timer
This app has a large library of FREE guided meditations, as well as a timer feature that allows you to meditate on your own. It also has a large community of users that can be a great source of support.
Insight Timer is the only app you need to build healthy habits and create a wellbeing routine that works for you. And it’s free. According to their web site, they propose the largest free library of guided meditations on earth.
They also have a Member Plus propgram with more premium features, but you can probably leave very well with the Free Membership!
Meditopia
The Meditopia app guides you through meditations, mindful movements, and other exercises designed to reduce stress and increase well-being. After a free trial, you can choose between a premium membership with more than 1000 meditations, mindfulness exercises, stories or articles, in different languages, and a free membership, with a small unblocked content.
They have a Members first approach: Members are at the heart of what – and why – they do. I personally am a subscriber of their premium program and I am very happy with their guided meditations, which I mainly use before going to bed.
Smiling Mind
This app is specifically designed for younger users and is great for kids and teens who are new to meditation. They offer programs for all ages including Kids (3-12), Youth (13-18) and Adults (19+). You can access Freely age-appropriate guided meditations and other features that help children and teenagers develop mindfulness and emotional regulation skills.
Smiling Mind is a completely FREE mindfulness meditation app developed in Australia by psychologists and educators to help bring balance to your life.
Buddhify
This app offers a wide variety of guided meditations, including sessions specifically designed for different activities such as walking, working, and sleeping. It’s available for both iOS and Android.
Buddhify focusses on mobile or on-the-go meditation, which you can do wherever you are and whatever you’re doing.
They have a low one-off fee you have to pay on the app store, but then the vast majority of the content is free.
10% Happier
Ten Percent happier is the Dalai Lama’s GUIDE TO HAPPINES, according to their website.
This app offers a wide range of guided meditations for both beginners and experienced meditators. It covers different topics such as stress, focus, and sleep and it’s also free.
After your 14-day free trial, membership in Ten Percent Happier costs $8.33/month, billed annually at $99.99.
Simple Habit
Simple Habit is a 5-minute meditation app designed to help busy people stress less, achieve more, and live better.
This app offers guided meditations for a variety of different purposes, including reducing stress, improving focus, and more. It’s free to download and use, but some of the content is locked behind a subscription paywall.
Meditation Studio
This app offers a wide variety of guided meditations, including sessions specifically designed for different activities such as walking, working, and sleeping. It also includes a journaling feature that allows you to track your progress over time. they are more focused on Iphone, with a free and a paid membership program, while on Android the application offers only a small subset of the meditations.
Meditation Studio is powered by over 80 leading meditation experts, each of whom has created original, exclusive and engaging guided meditations for you to experience right on your device.
Relax Melodies
This app offers guided meditations, ambient sounds, and sleep stories that can help you relax and fall asleep. It’s free with optional in-app purchases. They also offer 52 free sounds and melodies to create unlimited ambiances and atmospheres and Brainwaves frequencies to help you reach specific states of sleep.
They have changed name to Better Sleep: while Relax Melodies was an apt name for an app focused on soothing sounds and music, their product has evolved into a comprehensive toolkit for improved rest.
Best meditation apps for beginners Final considerations
It’s always a good idea, among the best meditation apps for beginners, to try a few different apps to see which one you find most helpful… then just find just the best time to meditate. Keep in mind that even if some apps require a subscription, they have a free version that can be useful too.
